Singing Scientist

24 July 2009

Singing Scientist

There’s been a Singing Nun and a range of singing talented housewives and cell phone retailers but AgResearch has discovered it has a talented young Singing Scientist.

Matthew Barnett, an Auckland based Senior Research Scientist in AgResearch’s Food Metabolism & Microbiology Section and part-time rock band member, has written and recorded a music video about his research - Nutritional Epigenetics - which is about how food and genes inter-relate.

“It’s great to be able to sing about your passion. New Zealand scientists are doing some amazing work. We’re passionate about what we do and it’s fun to start singing the praises of some of the research,” he says.

Matt was inspired to write the song and record the accompanying video as his entry in this year’s MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year Awards. While he wasn’t successful, Matt’s 90 second ‘The Epigenome Song’ is a hit with some of his science colleagues although it probably won’t be sung by the bands he plays with, ‘Leonard’ and ‘Tourist’.

“Usually I don’t do Country and Western, but this song’s agricultural links cried out to go country,” he says.

Matt’s research area, Epigenomics, is about working out the best diet for an individual based on their genes, and understanding how foods might act to turn certain genes on or off.

“The song was really to make it easier to understand the work and explain why it’s important. It’s the sort of song that may help school students understand the research and give them a glimpse of the satisfaction people like me get out of working in science.”

Matt has no plans to release the ‘The Epigenome Song’ on CD or to tour with it, but hopes it’ll help more people appreciate how cool science can be

Click here to see Matt’s Epigenome music video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_YKiXI7l9c

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